25 responses to “44/28 Watch: The Governing Begins”

Ed Butler at AusOpinion just put up a nice summary of the last week or so and pokes his stirring stick at people worrying that the current Labor leadership process is letting AbbottPM get away with stuff – Parliament doesn’t even sit until the second week of November, what can any LOTO reasonably do without Question Time to hang their hooks on for the media? Right now the media is, on the whole, doing a decent job of scrutinising the Abbott government without any help from the Opposition.

Brandis and integrity seem to be two words that can’t be used in the same sentence/. It’s bad enough for any politician to have his snout in the trough like this but Brandis is supposed to be the nation’s chief law officer.

“Attorney-General George Brandis has defended as within his rights spending nearly $13,000 of taxpayer funds over the past four years on his personal library.”

One of the very few politicians that I knew was Janet Powell.Now deceased.I had a few sobs about that.I met her when she hadn’t made it as a Democrat but as a spunky type,trying matters for Aboriginal recognitions,like Land Rights not Uranium.Time flies or whatever it does.I have lossed a person whom I felt could of been a very close friend,but as it was, crossing each others path a number of times.There is no relevance to watching Abbott.

I will miss Peter Slipper’s technically correct and impartial management of the day-to-day business of the House of Representatives. He knew what he was doing and did it very well. His knowledge of meeting procedure, the intricacies of Parliament and control of Question Time were superior to others I have seen in the Speaker’s chair. This will be particularly so now that Mr Abbott has parked someone there only because he didn’t want her in his ministry.

Brandeis’s cavalier approach to tax-payer funded rorts comes on top of unanswered allegations of corruption in Reserve Bank of Australia affiliates. Suggestions of a reluctance to act on the part of the AFP and ASIC. The Liberal Democratic Party legally pocketing a million in AEC election expenses. The spectrum of what can and what can’t be done in Canberra is bewildering.

“Despite Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s push to strengthen ties with Indonesia during a meeting with business and government delegates on Tuesday morning, a press conference following the breakfast was restricted to the Australian media.

Local media, including the Jakarta Globe, were not allowed to attend the press briefing that saw Abbott and Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, speak with Australian media.”

I was listening to the 7.30 Report tonight [Wednesday] while Greg Hunt was trotting out one set of confected figures after another without any contradiction from the poor interviewer. Mr Hunt thought he was still in Opposition and just talked over her while he produced one figure after another that did not match up.

This makes one lie each week by the the Abbott “Government”.
1. That Mr Abbott would spend his first week in an aboriginal settlement.
2. That Mt Abbott would buy up clapped out fishing boats in Indonesia, to stop them being used by people smugglers,
3. That Australia’s Navy would tow boats back to Indonesian waters, and that
4. Cutting the Carbon Tax would leave Australia better off.

Only for the fact that talent is very low in the LNP government, Mr Hunt would still have his training wheels and be led around by Nanny Bishop, the one with the Medusa stare, not the one with the free world’s supply of hair spray on her head.

Mind you, things could be worse for the “Government”, if sweet, sweet Sophie had held onto her rusted on Liberal Seat and not lost it to an Independent, she might have been the Minister for the Envioronment. Now, that’s a thought to stop chooks laying and have cows’ milk curdling early.

Unless he is so incompetent he doesn’t know whats real and what isn’t.

I didn’t think too much about the interview tho. The ABC fact check unit put this out today and it directly contradicted what hunt said, yet the interviewer seemed unaware of this. Considering that it is actually her job to know this stuff she didn’t do it properly.

Also, when Tony Abbott shut out the Indonesian journalists from his Jakarta press conference he apparently broke Indonesian law and earned himself a two year jail sentence.
Now, what I want to know is why the hell the Indonesians didn’t do us and the world a favour and lock him up.

It is Liberal policy to turn boats around where it is safe to do so, not tow them back. I have seen reports that has already occurred twice.
The price on carbon dioxide is not reducing carbon emissions significantly as it is too low. It would need to be at least $70 a tonne to really work but probably closer to $140. There is no way an Australian government can do that without a global deal and/or probably trade barriers. So Hunt is actually correct in that the carbon price is not very effective. Of course not paying a tax leaves people better off. And it is people who pay in the end through higher prices.
Brandis spending money on books is actually pretty reasonable, they are tools of the trade so would be tax deductible anyway . The problem is how we pay politicians. I personally have spent more than that on books over a two year period. Technical, periodicals and history books are expensive.
The LDP getting a $1m is a result of labor and the Liberals voting to pay parties for votes. So if you are going to complain about that you also have to complain about Labor , the Greens and LNP getting funds (I don’t think any party should get paid). If the problem is that much of their vote is from low information voters then you have to complain about compulsory voting.

You will need to know the enemy much better if opposition is going to be effective. Much of the left has spent the last 3 years thinking no-one will vote for Abbot despite him nearly unseating a one term government in 2010. That did not work out too well. There should plenty of stuff ups with a new government and the party vote should help Labor get over the difficult Rudd/Gillard years. Abbot’s front bench looks pretty weak from a policy formation perspective. But it cannot be the crazed chant of Abbot, Abbot, Abbot we saw for the last 3 years. It did not work, it was never going to work, why Labor talked about him at all is beyond me and I said that to a couple of labor friends who were staffers. I think laying low for the next 18 is probably the best way to go. PS if Labor blocks the ETS removal the new Senate will remove it and not vote in direct action. No way will the LDP, Family First or PUP vote for it. Labor or the Greens will also find it difficult. Labor may have to in the end.

Tony Abbott has incurred the wrath of Indonesia’s journalists by excluding them from a press conference, and even committed a criminal offence, according to the head of the country’s journalists’ union.

Bolter Hunt didn’t say the price on carbon “wasn’t very effective” he said it had failed to curb emissions when in fact emissions had dropped from the time of its introduction. Admittedly that is just a correlation, however Hunt claimed that even that correlation wasn’t there. Which is flat out wrong.

He claimed emissions had risen and quoted a projection for 2020 as proof.

He either doesn’t know what he is talking about, or does and is lying.

As far as Brandis goes, you and I paid for him to travel to a mates wedding. he only paid up when exposed in the media and all the while was involved in attacking another MP for spending less of our money.

Admittedly Brandis only spent 1700 bucks or so, unlike Tony Abbott who claimed half a million from tax payers in a year recently, some of it so he could go swimming. Still brandis was clearly dishonest and odds are so was Abbott given he claimed taxpayer money to take part in commercial swimming races where no official political business was involved.

So its clear we know our “enemy” will be ripping off taxpayers at every opportunity.

You’re right about the general rorting tho, and the way both sides think tax payer money funding is their personal expense accounts.

As far as direct action goes … well the alp should vote against ending the ETS especially if its gonna lose anyway. SAt least if there is no direct action it’ll be one less opportunity for the coalition to funnel taxpayer money to their rich mates.

@10
I saw that as well. Why the hell wasn’t Hunt asked to explain how a 700K figure was now 400K this making the govts. task sooooo much easier. The interviewer just moved on quickly to some other gambit designed to trip up the minister. The quality of questioning was abysmal.

Huge difference in ALP Senate vote in South Australia as compared to House of Reps, compared with other states. Labor needs to think carefully about their preferencing strategy for the 2016 Senate elections and the merits of keeping Nick Xenophon’s running mate out in order to return Sarah Hanson-Young and put Family First’s Bob Day in. It clearly flies in the face of the revealed preferences of their own voters.

Tony Abbott has made a grey start to his Prime Ministership. Hugely successful trip to Indonesia and sacking the NBN Board. Looks like he will have the numbers in the Senate to repeal the plant food and mining tax. All good news.

So an Indonesian journalist gets a bit miffy about Tony Abbott wanting to have an Australian journalists only press conference and paul burns (above) wants the Indonesian government to charge an Austalian PM with a criminal offence. Just how stupid is he.